1h ago
Project leaders say change is needed amid a growing threat from one of the main sources of the problem, though they insist it can be beaten.
Allister Webb
Job Title
Plans to update a key protocol for tackling lameness in sheep have been outlined, 15 years after the initiative was originally launched.
Leaders of the Five Point Plan project say changes are necessary to reflect evolving disease threats, latest research and the implementation challenges faced by farmers.
The new plan, which was revealed in a briefing at the National Sheep Association (NSA) summer event in Worcestershire, is expected to be unveiled this autumn.
The project includes the provision of new support materials for vets and farmers, while officials are also exploring the potential development of a smartphone-based AI tool to help detect lameness from video footage.
Vet and sheep farmer Ruth Clements, who launched the initial plan, said the new work was intended to deliver “an updated, practical and evidence-based plan for the future”.
She added: “We know that it’s a costly disease, both in terms of loss of production, but also the costs and time it takes to handle and manage lame sheep. There’s some real strong drivers to trying to support farmers to control the disease in a better way.
“Our job is to try and identify what’s going to be the most use for the farming community and the veterinary community in terms of those materials and looking for opportunities going forward to extend that beyond this project.”
The original plan, which includes measures such as prompt treatment, culling persistently lame sheep, quarantining incoming stock, preventing disease spread and vaccination with Footvax, is credited with cutting national lameness levels to less than 5 per cent.
But officials say progress has stalled latterly largely due to inconsistent deployment of the measures and rising levels of contagious ovine digital dermatitis (CODD).
NSA vice-president Bryan Griffiths, a Devon-based sheep farmer who is chairing the project with his wife Liz, said: “By and large we can handle scold and foot rot [the other main sources of lameness]. But this CODD is far more challenging.”
The new work, which has been supported by funding from the Farming Innovation Programme’s ADOPT initiative, is based on a review of current evidence and interviews with farmers and other industry stakeholders.
It is hoped the revised plan will help to reduce lameness levels to less than 2 per cent – a target that officials believe has proved elusive so far.
Mr Griffiths described lameness as “unsightly” and acknowledged it sent a “very bad” welfare message.
But he also highlighted signs of encouragement from the latest research to suggest the target is achievable.
He said: “Something that came out quite clearly from the interviews is that one or two have adhered rigidly to the five-point plan and have beaten lameness. It can be done.”
The programme is also intended to accord with ambitions set out within Defra’s Animal Health and Welfare Pathway, through which funded vet visits to check the health and welfare of livestock have been available since early 2025.